AG Abbott responds to president’s executive action on immigration

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued the following statement today regarding President Obama’s immigration executive action announced last week:

“This is a legal issue, not a political issue, and President Obama has crossed a serious legal line with his proposed unilateral immigration executive action. The President’s action violates his constitutional duty to faithfully enforce immigration laws that were duly enacted by Congress, circumvents the will of the American people and is an affront to the families and individuals who follow our laws to legally immigrate to the United States. The State of Texas will assert a legal action against President Obama’s unconstitutional abuse of power.

“Most everyone agrees that our immigration system is broken and must be fixed. But executive fiat is not the way to fix it. President Obama apparently feels completely unrestrained by our Constitution. He is abdicating his responsibility to uphold and enforce the Constitution and attempting to rewrite immigration laws, which he has no authority to do - something the President himself has previously admitted. The President doesn’t have the authority to alter or suspend laws - he is simply required to execute the laws passed by Congress.

“President Obama’s actions violate the Take Care Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, and the Administrative Procedure Act. And his actions will undoubtedly do nothing to fix our broken immigration system, but rather encourage more illegal immigration and only exacerbate the problem.”

On Nov. 20, President Obama announced he is suspending the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Communities program, which is responsible for identifying and deporting thousands of dangerous criminals who are in the U.S. illegally and in the custody of law enforcement, as a part of his executive action on immigration.